On the 12th June, two Michelin starred Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in Nottingham will open his latest dining concept, Nucleus.

Located within the existing restaurant grounds, Nucleus will be a ‘restaurant within a restaurant’ and a totally exclusive, self-contained, six-seat dining experience with its own private access, separate to the main dining facilities.

Offering a seasonal seven-courses at lunch and ten-courses at dinner, the Tasting Menus will feature exclusive Nucleus dishes with occasional highlights from the main restaurant menus.

A gastronomic inner sanctum, Nucleus will provide the ultimate Sat Bains experience, giving guests one-on-one exclusive access to the restaurant’s creative team, as they cook and plate dishes from the dedicated kitchen, allowing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the very heart of the magic that is the thought process and imagination of chef Sat Bains. Dishes will include for example peppered steak – aged beef, roscoff onions, nasturtium, potato or roast monkfish, sweetcorn relish, chicken juices, as well as an evolution of original Restaurant Sat Bains dishes such as scallops, braised pigs trotter, ponzu jelly or strawberries, vanilla, lemon verbena. Optional wines flights can be tailored by the restaurant’s MW Head Sommelier and chosen at three separate price points ranging from £75.00 to £160.00.

Sat Bains explains, “I have always endeavoured to bring a true taste of what it is to eat here in the East Midlands - to give people a sense of place. To this end the restaurant has become like one giant jigsaw puzzle. So many pieces make up the bigger picture and with Nucleus, we hope to give our guests another dimension in our journey of Taste, Texture, Temperature.”

Nucleus is the culmination in the recent on-going evolvement at Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms and its grounds. The space is set to not only enhance the gastronomic experience of the restaurant guests, but also provide a dedicated outlet for the team’s creativity and maximise the restaurant’s energy efficiency and sustainability.

In 2010, whilst working with the University of Nottingham on their entry for the Solar Decathlon H.O.U.S.E. competition, Sat discovered an affinity with the energy-saving ethos of the faculty and its students. Part of the competition involved growing a maximum number of vegetables and herbs in a small urban garden for kitchen use. This provided the initial inspiration in a process of redesigns for the restaurant grounds.

The following year, he granted the University - as part of a Ph.D. thesis – full access to the restaurant, to monitor and analyse its energy use and possible savings.

Then in 2013, during a trip to Australia, he was introduced to the Closed Loop Organics system and became the first restaurant in Europe to import and install the equipment in his grounds back in Nottingham.

Immediately, the system reduced the restaurant’s kitchen waste by up to 90% by weight, in just 24 hours. Further maturing of this nutrient-rich compost ensured its possible re-use back into the garden in a matter of weeks. Hence the Closed Loop.

For the first time, the restaurant had its own constant supplies of garden compost and was the final piece in a jigsaw that saw the garden redevelopment design finally begin in the spring of 2014.

Raised beds were able to be installed for maximum efficiency in the production of vegetables; two wooden Victorian greenhouses were added to prolong the growing season and protect young plants; a full herb garden was added and the existing picturesque courtyard was further enhanced with espalier-trained fruit trees and wall mounted vertical herb growers.

These changes have not only allowed the chefs greater access to the quantity and variety of produce for the restaurant and development kitchen, but also provided the inspiration to push the boundaries even further with their unique flavour combinations.

The kitchen itself at Nucleus is a collaboration between Sat and the Advance Group. The relatively small footprint of the working area incorporates a perfect fit-for-purpose cooking space, which includes the Angelo Po Monolithe Island complete with energy efficient contact heaters.

The open dining area is contemporary in style, yet still references the building’s Victorian farm origins with a soft, earthy palette of exposed reclaimed brick, natural brown leathers and textural dark wood. The space will seat a maximum of six in various combinations, giving guests full visual access to the kitchen.